


a new beginning (a self-indulgent FMA rewrite)

by averagespacekid



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Canon, Angst, Canon Rewrite, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Comedy, Edward Elric Swears, Eventual Romance, F/M, Gen, Self-Indulgent, a lot darker than canon, al isn't in armor, mix of brotherhood and 03, pride and selim are two different characters, rose is like ed's companion, scar and mei don't exist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28036791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/averagespacekid/pseuds/averagespacekid
Summary: Edward Elric is a fiery fifteen-year-old boy with a dark past and secrets abound. Still reeling from the almost-loss of his brother Alphonse, he goes on a quest to try and reunite with him. But he still has no clues; that is, until he reaches a town called Liore. There, he meets a girl named Rose, and he's quick to change her life. And she's determined to change his, too.But when he finally finds what he's looking for, his world comes crashing down around him. He thought he had nothing left to lose, but he was wrong. Now Rose is the only thing Ed has left, and no matter how much he denies it, he needs her just as much as she needs him.Together, they'll make their best attempt at conquering the world in this new beginning.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric/Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric/Rosé Thomas, Gracia Hughes/Maes Hughes, Lan Fan/Ling Yao, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Kudos: 3





	a new beginning (a self-indulgent FMA rewrite)

Edward Elric hated deserts. Sure, he was fine with heat, given that he wore a giant leather coat and an entirely black outfit underneath every day. But the thing that got him about deserts was that there was nothing but sand.

He voiced this opinion to his brother, Alphonse. “See, if there was some grass, I could turn it into bread! And of course if there was water, I could purify it and drink it. But nope, nothing! Nothing but ground up rock.”

There was no reply, as always. 

Ed had to be stuck in a desert, didn’t he? He just had to have pissed off his taxi driver into making him get out and walk the rest of the way to Liore. He had no idea how he even did that! The driver had called him short, after all, which he hated even more than deserts. 

“I’m not short, goddamnit,” he told Al. “I’m taller than you! I’m just surrounded by giants all the time.”

He stared into the distance at the city he was headed for. Heatwaves blurred the skyline, but he could see that it was a shining metropolis topped with gold on every building. 

He already didn’t like it. 

So he piled his long hair into a ponytail to give his neck relief from the heat and continued on.

When he finally got into Liore, the first thing he saw was a fountain. He gasped in utter joy and ran towards it, but stopped when the smell of it hit him. It wasn’t water, he realized, it was wine. 

“Wine in a fountain?” he asked. “What kind of place is this, anyways?”

“Hey kid,” a voice from next to him said. He hadn’t even realized there was anyone around. “Who are you talking to? You’re alone, aren’t you?”

Ed sighed, looking up at the source of the voice, a middle-aged man. “Nobody. Hey pops, yknow where I can get some water around here?”

A few moments later, he was seated at an outdoor bar being waited on by the man, who soon served him a cup of water. “So kid,” he asked Ed, “You don’t look like you’re from around here. And with that outfit, I’d think you were a street performer or something.”

Ed almost spit out his water. “A  _ street performer _ ? I’m an alchemist, you damn--” he cut himself off. Al always wanted him to get better at socializing, so he calmed himself down. 

He knew that he looked a bit weird to most. His hair was almost the color of solid gold, and his skin was sunkissed to the point of looking like he spent all of his time outside, which he didn’t. And of course, there were his eyes, which were even more gold than his hair. That was pretty unnatural to most. His mother had told him and Al that their father was descended from the ancient civilization Xerxes, in which that was commonplace, but Ed still pretty much accepted that he was a bit of a freak. 

“An alchemist?” the man asked. “We don’t see many of those in these parts. Hey, do you think you could show me a trick?”

Ed rolled his eyes. “Alchemy isn’t a trick. It’s science; an equivalent exchange.”

The man ignored him and pulled a pile of electrical parts from under the bar. “Can you fix this radio for me? Some tall-ass dolt came over here one day and knocked it over.”

“Fine, as long as you have all the parts.” Ed took the pile from the man and set it down on the ground behind him.

Then, he clapped his hands, pressed them to the ground next to the parts, and suddenly, the lumps of metal began to reform. They morphed together into a solid object, and when Ed removed his hands, the radio was whole again. 

At this point, people had crowded around to see what was going on. When they saw what Ed did, they were fascinated. They  _ ooh _ ed and  _ ahh _ ed and clapped and the whole shebang.

But Ed wasn’t paying attention to them. All he cared to listen to right now was what the newly-fixed radio was projecting. 

_ “The Sun God Leto has heard your prayers. He has gifted me the power to grant you everything you wish for, as long as you have faith in him.” _

Ed looked back at the barkeep. “Who the hell is this clown and what’s he spewing?” 

The barkeep looked at him as if he’d just killed someone. “Did you just insult the Great Prophet Cornello? Do you even know anything about the Sun God?”

Ed shrugged. “You know I’m not from around here. Just tell me.”

A couple of people from the crowd came over. One of them said, “The Sun God gave Father Cornello the power to grant miracles! It’s just like what you did there!” 

Ed nodded. This was what he came here for. “Hey mister,” he asked the barkeep, “Is there any way I can meet this Cornello?”

Suddenly, a perky voice appeared behind Ed. “I could bring you to the cathedral if you’d like!”

Ed turned around to see a teenage girl with dark skin and pink-streaked hair smiling at him. He grinned back at her. “Sounds perfect! Let’s go!”

She giggled. “My name’s Rose. What’s yours?”

“Edward,” he told her. “Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist!” 

One of the bar’s patrons looked at him curiously. “Why do they call you ‘Fullmetal’? You’re just a pipsqueak!”

Ed had heard this a million times already, and was too focused on the goal at hand to care. “None of your business, pops. Rose, can we get going?”

Rose nodded and started away from the bar, Ed on her heels. 

When they reached the building at the center of the city, there was a huge crowd outside of it. They were all watching a man standing on the cathedral steps and cheering for him. 

Ed set down his suitcase and stood on it so he could see better. The man held up a goblet filled with water, and after a few moments, the water changed color to a dark red, presumably wine. 

“See? That’s one of his miracles!” Rose told Ed, who was now equal to her height. “He does this every day to keep our faith in the Sun God.”

Ed rolled his eyes. “Nope, that’s just basic alchemy. Since water and wine have the same elemental properties, just switch the water’s compounds up a bit and you have wine. It’s the same as turning lead into gold, really.”

Rose’s face fell into a grim expression. “Well, if you don’t believe that, then watch this!”

The man, who Ed now knew was Cornello, was approached by a little girl holding what looked like the body of a bird. The man cupped her hands in his, and when he lifted them away, the bird leaped from the girl’s hands and flew into the air. The crowd erupted in cheers and whistling. 

“How’s that for a miracle?” Rose smirked. 

Ed’s eyebrows furrowed. “That’s also alchemy. But the thing is, he’s not abiding by the laws of equivalent exchange.”

“Equivalent exchange?”

Ed sighed. He’d explained this to pretty much every non-alchemist he’d met so far. “It’s simple. The universe is a giant cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth as something new. This happens naturally all the time, like when a plant absorbs nutrients from the ground to grow. It doesn’t produce new materials, just turns them into something else. Alchemists harness this natural power through a circle that they draw, which represents the cycle, to transform and transmute elements. But as I said, nothing new is produced because, as my brother always says, ‘humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return.’ But what Cornello is doing completely bypasses that law. To create life, one would first need to give something similar in value, but he just did it without giving anything. That proves the hunch I had when I first came here.”

“Hunch? What do you mean?”

It was Ed’s turn to smirk. “Cornello has a Philosopher’s Stone, an alchemical tool that allows for one to bypass the law of equivalent exchange.”

Rose just stared at him, looking exasperated. “How can you be sure? How can something like that not be a miracle? Life is something so precious that it can’t be explained by anything but the Sun God’s generosity!”

Ed nodded. “Alright, I get it. You said you’d take me to see this guy, right? So let’s go see him.”

When the show was over, the two of them proceeded into the cathedral, Ed in the lead this time. However, Rose stopped when they reached the altar. 

“I’m going to consult with Father Cornello before you can meet with him. Then, I’ll leave the religious debating up to you two.”

Ed  _ pff _ ed. “I’m an atheist, so there won’t be any religion involved. He knows what he’s doing; he’ll ‘fess up.”

“How can you say that?” Rose shouted. “You saw what he did! And another thing, he promised me something that only a god could give, and I have faith that he can give it to me!”

“And what would that be?” 

Rose’s eyes began to fill. “My… my boyfriend died a few months ago. But Leto will give him back to me.”

Ed said nothing. He only pulled out a small book from his coat, opened to an early page that he knew all too well, and began to read. 

“Oxygen, 43 kilograms. Carbon, 16 kilograms. Hydrogen, 7 kilograms. Nitrogen, 1.8 kilograms. Phosphorous, 780 grams. Potassium, 140 grams. Sulfur, 140 grams. Sodium, 100 grams. Chlorine, 95. Magnesium, 19--”

“What are you talking about?” Rose interrupted. 

Ed closed his book and pocketed it. “Those are just some of the ingredients in the average human body. It can all be shown in numbers, and it can all be found in nature or bought on a child’s allowance. It’s not that hard to produce a body.” 

“What are you saying?”

“Here’s the thing, though. Even though scientists know all of that, we still haven’t been able to produce life. And why is that? Because it’s impossible. Even if all of that is gathered together, all it’ll produce is a lifeless lump of flesh. Alchemists are the closest things to gods there are, and not even they can bring something to life.”

“You’re talking like you have experience. Have you tried it?”

Ed looked down, his hair hiding his face. He didn’t reply.

“I’m going to consult with the Father,” Rose told him sternly, and proceeded into a hallway to Ed’s left. 

Ed sat down in the pews. He sighed, and began to speak. 

“Hey Al, do you remember when Mom died?”

_ It was a bright day, not a cloud in sight. A ten-year-old Ed and nine-year-old Al ran through the streets of Resembool without a care in the world. They were on their way home from their friend Winry’s house, where they’d shown her a new alchemic trick they’d learned.  _

_ But when they got home, they were greeted with something that they never thought they’d see.  _

_ Ed led Al into the house. “Mom! Winry loved it! She invited us over for dinner, so can we…” _

_ There, they saw the shadowed figure of their mother laying on the floor, limbs bent in unnatural ways. Her eyes were open, but they were glassy and unseeing.  _

_ “Mom?” Al asked, walking closer, but Ed held out his arm to stop him. “Let me see her, she’s hurt!” _

_ “She’s not hurt, Al,” Ed told him. “She’s dead.” _

Suddenly, something whistled past Ed’s head, grazing his ear. He jumped up, and saw a man aiming a revolver at him. 

He jumped behind another pew and narrowly avoided another shot. 

“Cray, what are you doing?” Rose’s voice asked. 

“Rose, stand back. That boy is a heretic who aims to harm Father Cornello.”

Ed knew what he had to do. He clapped his hands and pressed them to the floor, creating a tunnel into the next room. He jumped in and crawled through it.

He emerged into a giant hall filled with pillars and with a staircase at the opposite end. Standing at the apex of the staircase was the bald man from the show. 

“There you are, Cornello,” Ed smiled. “I’ve been waiting to meet you. I’m--”

“Edward Elric,” Cornello’s voice boomed. “I was expecting the Fullmetal Alchemist to be a bit taller, at least. Not a child hiding behind ridiculous hair and a garish outfit.”

He’d received these same insults many times before, so he brushed them off. “Oh, you can talk, you fake! You’ve been telling these people this whole time that you’re a prophet, but you’re just a fraud of an alchemist using a Philosopher’s Stone to make ‘miracles’! That’s a lot worse than looking a bit weird, I’d say!”

Cornello laughed. “Listen, boy. You may be powerful, but with this Stone, I exceed the power of even a god! I bring life to this town, and with every passing day, their devotion for my false god grows deeper. And with that, I have an army of believers ready to strike anyone I deem unfit to live! One day, I will conquer even the Fuhrer himself with my bare hands!”

Ed chuckled. For he’d noticed something as soon as Cornello had started speaking. “Give it up, pops. You’ve already lost.”

Cornello raised an eyebrow. “And how is that?”

Ed stepped to the side to reveal a shocked figure who had followed Ed into his tunnel. It was none other than Rose.

“F- Father?” She stuttered. “Is that really true? Is Ed right, is Leto a fake? Are you a fake?”

Cornello’s eyes widened. “Rose? How did you--”

“Rose,” Ed interrupted. “Listen to me. This man can’t do anything for you or your boyfriend. He’s gone, and I’m sorry, but nothing will ever bring him back.”

“Th- that’s not true!” Cornello began to panic. “I only said all of that to dupe him! The Sun God is real as he’s ever been! Trust me, and I’ll--”

“Oh, drop the act!” Ed shouted back. Then, he grabbed Rose’s hand. “Run!”

And with that, the two of them burst out of the hall, ran through the cathedral, escaped onto the streets of Liore, and dove into an alley. 

Ed tried to catch his breath.  _ Oh, thank alchemy for that! She finally-- _

“Edward,” Rose asked, “I’m so sorry. I should have trusted you.” her voice quivered, and she began to sob. 

Ed had no idea what to do, but Rose definitely seemed to. She fell into his arms, burying her face in his leather coat. 

So Ed did the only thing he could. He wrapped his arms around her. “It’ll be alright, okay? I promise.”

“But what am I going to do now?” she looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “All I had was my faith, and now it’s all gone!”

Ed sighed. “You have legs, don’t you? Stand up and carry on. I’ll help you however I can, but I need you to hold your own, okay?”

Rose sniffed, then she nodded. “Okay.” then, her eyes drifted to Ed’s right. “Hey, what’s that? On your neck.”

Ed inhaled sharply. He quickly grabbed at his hair, taking it from its ponytail and hiding the back of his neck. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s a tattoo, isn’t it?” Rose shook her head. “It’s okay, you can tell me. We’re on the same team now, right?”

Ed sighed. “I’ll tell you, but on one condition.”

“What is it?”

“You help me take down Cornello.”

Rose looked away. “But…”

“Rose,” Ed continued, “I know this is hard for you. But you have to realize that everything that Cornello has created here is fake. He intends to use you and this whole town to take over the country. You know that now, so for the sake of everyone in this town, please help me.”

She looked him in the eyes, and it felt like she was staring into his soul. “Okay.” 

Ed nodded. “Now, this isn’t a very good place to develop a plan. Do you know anywhere we can go to hide?”

Rose nodded. 

“Take us there, and I’ll tell you everything.”

The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in bands of color and giving way for the other stars to show themselves. The air was beginning to cool, so as they walked, Ed gave Rose his coat. 

She led him to the edge of town, to an abandoned house. “This is where my boyfriend and I used to come to talk,” she told him. 

“It’s perfect.” Ed opened the door, and they both headed in. 

There were boards on the windows, so Ed ripped one of them off, placed it on the house’s stone floor, clapped his hands, and ignited it. Soon, they had a decent-sized fire going to keep them warm.

“I can see it in your eyes,” Rose said after a moment of silence. “You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”

Ed hummed. “How could you tell?”

“Your eyes look so much older than the rest of you,” she told him, “and eyes are windows to the soul. Your soul has experienced much more than you should in the time you’ve lived.”

_ Back at it again with the spirituality, _ he thought. But he didn’t say anything. 

“Please,” she continued, “tell me.”

So, he began.


End file.
